International Tales of Hoffman: Trailer (2 Viewers)

[david hare]

I think it's worth mentioning that Ray Grabowski is the colorist on this, from Ned Price's Warner MPI outfit who did the restoration work with Film Foundation, and BFI and Canal on this. Ray was also colorist on Red Shoes and Blimp previously.


His taste and his vision for these films has been absolutely impeccable.

 

[haineshisway]

I wish Ray had been the colorist on Mr. Price's restoration of The Searchers - but hopefully he'll get his hands on that one someday.

 

[EddieLarkin]

I just finished watching this. I think the comments so far are actually underselling it a little! Every time there was a close up Robert Helpmann's or Léonide Massine's face I asked myself, is this the best looking Blu-ray I've ever seen?

I think it might be. If I'd watched this on a blind set up, you could have told me I was watching a 4K Blu-ray on a 4KTV, and I'd have believed you. Then again, I couldn't help 5 minutes into the picture, shuffling forward from my usual 6ft viewing distance to a more appropriate 4ft viewing distance (from a 50 inch TV). Simply wonderful.


And of course, no one should be surprised that the disc absolutely destroys the old Criterion:


http://i.imgur.com/q1wpAZ9.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/vhgvLMj.jpg

 

[david hare]

I am blowing it through a PJ at 120 inch diagonal. The image is so gorgeous I need a box of Kleenex.


Grabowski's work on all three of these P&P titles is totally benchmark.


I didn't know this previously but, as we discover in the Thelma piece in the extras, the Curtain Call footage had no soundtrack, and it was Thelma herself clearly calling on her considerable skills as one of the great movie editors who composed and edited the audio - varying applause levels and calls, audiences shuffle, music cues, cross fades et al for the sequence. She seemed to be as emotionally moved by the discovery of this piece of film as the rest of us have been. For me it was like finding a completely lost and forgotten treasure of huge importance from very early childhood, which turns up out of nowhere to knock yours socks off. And you have never actually even seen it before! It's a kind of totemic experience I guess. Very, very beautiful.


This is the most astonishing looking three strip to 4K to disc I have ever seen.

 

[EddieLarkin]

Even though I had already read that about Thelma elsewhere, I had forgotten it by the end of the picture. The applause and calls, sounding so authentic, didn't even remind me of what I'd read only a few days ago! She did a fantastic job.

 

[lark144]

I saw the TALES OF HOFFMAN restoration at Film Forum last week & to say that I was blown away would be an understatement.


I own the Criterion DVD, which I watched again just before seeing the restoration. I was never very happy with the DVD, as the color is somewhat faded, and there are also instances of fringing, especially around Hoffman's frock coat. but at least it existed as an aide-memorie from which to recover my prior experiences of the film. I've seen TALES OF HOFFMAN in a theater three times over the past 60 years, starting with when I was, I think, 3 or 4, and my memories of seeing the film, vague though they may be, are always ones of being enraptured. Within the past decade, I've also seen the opera at the Metropolitan, which was a big help, I found, in understanding what exactly was going on with all that singing, which I pretty much ignored in my previous viewings of the film, treating the opera on the sound track as an accompaniment for dance, and to focus on the movements of the performers, as well as the colors in both the sets and costumes as a counterpoint through which the themes of the narrative were expressed.


Anyway, this time THE TALES OF HOFFMAN seemed like a completely different film, in as much as now all the elements, both cinematic, theatrical & musical, seem completely unified. What I mean to say is, because the Archers designed TALES OF HOFFMAN as a "Composed work" (to quote Martin Scorsese's introduction), it's just not stunning color, or great sound, but a complete unified gestalt...or if you like..a completely imagined and populated alternative universe.which possesses you for the length of the film.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Can't find any opium anywhere and my pharmacist doesn't stock laudanum any longer so I'll have to settle for good old-fashioned dark green opiated hash ..

CAN'T WAIT --- my delay is because my projector chose this week to blow its lamp .. I'm going to have to wait till next week as I refuse to watch it on just my 46 inch Panny plasma! It's 150 inch or nothing ...

The comments and the pics make me think I'm in for more than a treat ......

 

[haineshisway]

I liken this to eating the best hot fudge sundae in the world, with incredible whipped cream, nuts and a cherry on top. And the deeper into the ice cream you go, the more wonderful hot fudge you discover. It's a disc to relish and I haven't even finished it yet, because I am just savoring it so.


And it's not even my favorite Powell and Pressberger film - for me, in order, it's Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death, Colonel Blimp and The Red Shoes. But his one follows those.

 

[david hare]

I wonder if you'll find later, like me, you are now inclined to resinstate Hoffmann to that stellar top tier lineup? Id relegated it to second tier P&P since first seeing it, although that first rush from the 1982 clandestine NYC screenings was like an opium trip at the time.


A number of things about it always bothered me, for one the very clunky English language translation used by those very British period style Sadlers Wells "Anglo" productions. What pushes that to the background this time around is how good Beecham and the RPO are with the score - they could obviously play it blindfolded, and somehow Powell's brilliant notion - complete genius - to bring on the singers and actors together in the final call suddenly reminds you what you were watching beneath all those hundreds of layers of production design and artifice and magic - a cast, performing an opera, one of the very greatest ever written. And filmed by people who were remembering the silent cinema, and Sternberg, Minnelli and Cocteau (a mixture of camp and sublime high Romantic hysteria and the two often crossing each other) when they put every inch of their talent into this film.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

I couldn't wait any longer and I hate waiting even longer for shipments unfortunately I decided to import this and Darling and paid for expedited shipping. The only plus is they don't charge flat rates for the faster shipping for each title but still overall expensive.

 

[david hare]

you won't regret it.

 

[bigshot]

I never got this film back when it was on Criterion, so I am coming to it brand new. Good God, the art direction and cinematography are eye popping. But I got all the way up to the Intermission and realized I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the film. I think the problem is that I didn't turn on the subtitles since it was in English. I love opera, but even in English, without subtitles, I'm lost. I'll try again tomorrow with the subs turned on. I think I'll get a lot more out of it.

 

[EddieLarkin]

I was doing OK until the intermission but then did sort of lose track in the third act. Next viewing I will also use the subtitles. Annoyingly the subtitles on this disc feature a distracting quaver to denote that the person is singing. Meaning of course that it's there on every line of subtitles! StudioCanal are a real bunch of geniuses.

 

[bigshot]

I started over with the "subtitles for the hearing impaired" ugh. So dumb. "Chorus sings" "Overlapping singing"


I still couldn't make it past the intermission, but I did understand the characters and story line a bit better. Man! This has to be one of the most effeminate movies ever. The art direction and lighting are impeccable, but I don't see a lot of genuine interest in the girl characters from half the male cast. Maybe three quarters of the male cast. I haven't seen the end yet.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

my copy of this title and Darling are out for delivery today. I will just be stuck at work all day. Can't wait to see what this disc looks like in motion. The screen caps look phenomenal. I was looking over my old Criterion disc listening to the wonderful commentary track on that edition and noticing how bad some of the shots were with the 3 strip technicolor alignment.


I just hope a deal is made for the U.S. release for this title as a Criterion edition that commentary track is one of my all time fav tracks from Criterion along with The Red Shoes.

 

[JPCinema]

Just purchased the restored TALES OF HOFFMAN on Blu Ray in Paris for 19 Euros. Great deal as the Euro is so low these days.

 

[haineshisway]

Okay, here's a good one: Dr. Svet over at you know where (what IS this guy a doctor OF, one wonders - certainly he knows almost nothing about film) in reviewing the new Blu of Darling says that they haven't used the new 4K restoration for the Blu-ray and he also states (and I mean STATES) that the 4K restoration for Tales of Hoffman wasn't used for this Blu-ray. And - go.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

I think you read the Darling review too fast. I did at first glance also the other day


"The release does not use as a foundation an extensive new restoration -- as it is the case with StudioCanal's release of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Tales of Hoffmann -- but the end result is good."


When you read it really fast it makes it seem the opposite. He Has not reviewed Hoffmann... yet.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

I watched my Blu for both Hoffmann and Darling over the weekend.


Tales of Hoffmann is my favorite Powell&Pressburger film and it is interesting hearing people comment on the forums that they use the subtitles since to be honest as many times as I have seen the film I must have always been glued to the visual side of the film more so because there are a lot of moments when I really don't know what they are singing about, and yet I really don't care! I can't stop looking at the movie.


I still hold tight to my Criterion DVD for the commentary track and their bonus features. It was cool to know that previous home video versions of Hoffmann were not restored from from an original prints and as Thelma Schoonmaker Powell comments in her interivew the original print was in really good shape. The audio and the VIDEO are spectacular on this UK Blu-Ray for sure.


Darling is also a worthy purchase it doesn't look incredible but it doesn't look bad at all. It isn't pristine but it is far better than sitting thru the old MGM DVD

 

[david hare]

Yes Bruce, to be fair Svet actually knows the Hoffmann disc is the real deal. And he's PhD. Anyway...


If you want to fall on the floor with uncontrollable mirth try reading the dedicated thread for Imitation of Life resto at the same website. Various people there with names like "wormraper" ("aka "Prince of the web") are claiming first hand knowledge gleaned from "contacts at Universal/NBC" that 2.00 is the OAR. I think they mean the janitor. Never mind Bob Furmanek, Nick and I has told them give up the bullshit. Well Bob was more polite than I.BUt of course they know Sirk made all these films in Superscope!!!! Welcome to the dark side of the web.


One of them called me " a tired old projectionist" - I may be a tired old queen (badge proudly held) but I've sill got a memory like a f.....g steel trap.